I am alone because Ayako has gone to Sapporo.

  Ayako has gone to Chiaki's house in Sapporo to take care of Arashi. Tokio, Arashi's brother, went to a training camp of succer, and Chiaki, their mother, will go to a party and will not come home tonight. Ayako will stay with little Arashi at their house and will come back here to Tomaokomai tomorrow morning.
  I stayed at home all day but in the afternoon, I went out to buy my dinner in the supermarcket nearby, and went to the community hall to attend a meeting to talk about the management of the hall. I came back home at about 8:00 p.m. Then I had dinner, took a bath, and went to bed.

A warm, but mostly cloudy day.

  I stayed at home all day, because I feel tired and seemed to have a cold. An insurerance sales woman came in the afternoon, and we insured our house against fire.

Ayako went to Sapporo for the final check of the cleared rooms of Shimizu's condominium..

   It had stopped snowing, so I first cleared the snow on my car in the morning. Today, Ayako went to Sapporo for the final check of the rooms of Shimizu's condominium with Haruna. Ayako went to Tomakomai station by car and too a bus to Sapporo. She phoned me from Shimizu's codo at 1:00 pm, saying she was sittino on the cleared floor of the condo with Haruna. They were going to have lunch at some restaurant in the supermarket close by, and was coming home after having lunch. Ayako came home at about 4:00, finishing clearing Shimizu's condo.

In Muroran, blackout caused by snow storm.

  Until morning, it was raining here in Tomakomai, but in Muroran and Noboribetsu which are only 50 km away from Tomakomai, it was snowing heavily. The maximum wind speed in Muroran was 39.7 km/h, and power poles were fell over and caused a massive power failure. The number of the families experiencing black out in Muroran and Noboribets is over 50,000. 

It snowed.

  This morning, when I woke up and opened the front door to bring in today's newspaper, I found the ground was covered with snow. It was the second time we had snow this season.
  Ayako went to the opthalmic hospital to check her eye sight in the morning, while I carried paper waste to the city incinerator by car. It was raining all day.

I saw Mt.Tarumae covered with snow for the first time this winter.

  It was a fine day. In the morning, I walked along the Tomakomai river, and saw snow-capped Mt.Tarumae for the first time this winter. A few days ago, it seemed to have snowed, but I didn't see the mountain.

I painted the birdhouses and completed them.

 I went to the do-it-yourself shop to buy color paint and painted the birdhouses I had made yesterday. I made two birdhouses, a little big one and a small one. I painted the roof of the small house red, and the bigger one blue. After completed, I set the bigger one on the branches of the maple tree, and the small one on the yew tree. I look forward to seeing birds soon, so I placed a tray with seeds in near the houses

I made two bird houses.

  While walking in the morning, I hit on an idea that I would make bird houses and put on the trees in my garden. I returned home on half way of my regular walking, and went to the do-it-yourself home center, and bought the materials. The materials had been prepared for building, so it was easy to put them together and fix with nails. Tomorrow, I will paint them and set on the trees in my garden.  

A fine day. Gardening all day.

  It was a fine day today. I spent almost all day gardening. I cut down all the dead leaves of the chrysanthemums and other flowers for the preparation of the coming winter season. In some parts of Hokkaido, it is snowing all day. In Iwamizawa and Asahikawa, there was about 20-cm-snowfall, the TV news reports.

Nov.21 Wed. Masanobu has gone home to Tochigi.

  Masanobu worked in the morning sorting important papers of Shimizu's. At 11:30, he drove Ayako and me in my car to Chitose International Airport. We ate lunch at a restaurant in the airport building, and at about 1:30, Masanobu said goodby and walked into the boarding gate. I drove home on the way back.
  Before going to Chitose, Ayako and I went to Furusato Noen, and pulled up all the daikon we had grown. It was the last time for us to go to our field this year.  

Ayako went to the hospital yesterday for regular check-up yesterday.

  Yesterday I forgot to post my diary here. So I will write about what I did yesterday first.
  Ayako went to the hospital for her regular check-up. Her doctor told her that her blood sugar level was not too high and that she should be more careful of her blood pressure than her blood sugar level. He said she shouldn't take too much salt.
  I stayed at home with Masanobu.

I went to Sapporo with Ayako and Masanobu today,again.

   It snowed in the night, and my car was covered with the snow. But we had to go to Sapporo to see Shimizu and his wife, Emiko, so I removed the snow on my car. Masanobu had changed the tires of my car to the winter tires on the previous day. When we left home at around 10:00, it was sunny. We went to Shimizu's condominium first, and saw the rooms were almost cleared except some furniture and bed clothings. Then we went to Kisakuen carehouse where Emiko was. Emiko was sleeping in bed, but when we called her, she opened her eyes just thinly, and once showed a little smiling expression. After that, we went to another carehouse "Die Grunnen" where Mr.Shimizu was. After we talked with him, we headed back to Tomakomai. On the way, we stopped at Chitose to see an apartment house whose owner was Emiko. The building was for four families, but only two families lived, and two rooms were vacant. The walles of the apartment was decayed and looked to need repairs. We arrived home at about 5:30. We ate sushi for dinner we bought on the way back the a supermarket "Paseo" at Sumikawa cho.

Gakugei kai of our grandsons' school in the first snowfall in this winter.

  Ayako and I went to Sapporo. The purpose was to see Arashi's and Tokio's performance in the gakugeikai of their primary school. In gakugeikai or another name "gakushu happyoukai", the pupils perform in dramas chorus and other forms of performances. Tokio sang in chorus, and showed drobbling a basketball like ball on the stage. Tokio played a role in their drama, but the voices of the actors and actresses were not loud enough for the audience to hear. Tokio's performance was early in the morning, but Tokio's was in the afternoon. After finishing, we went out of the school gymnasium, we were surprised to see snow was falling with strong wind. It was the first snowfall, which was the latest in history, the media said. 

Noda diet disolved yesterday.

  It was rainy all day today. We, three, including Masanobu, Ayao, and me, worked sorting papers carried from Shimizu's condominium in Sapporo, and carried unnecessary things to the city incinerator to burn.
  Prime minister Yoshihiko Noda announced to disolve the Diet yesterday, and it was dicided for the election would be held in a month, on December 16th. The governing party Japan Democratic Party is not popular, so the prime minister of Japan possibly change again. What will Japan's future be ?  I feel somewhat uneasy.

Ayako became the conservator for Shimizu officially.

  Yesterday Ayako went to Sapporo with Masanobu, and met a notary in the carehouse die Grunnen where Shimizu stay, and took the final procedure for becoming the conservator for Shimizu. Shimizu was glad for Ayako to become the conservator for him. After they returned, we had dinner at home for the first time in the last three days. Drinking and eating at a boiled meat restaurant at Nisshin cho, we talked about Shimizu's life so far, and about his wife and two sons.  

To Sapporo,again.

  I went to Sapporo with Ayako and Masanobu.

Ayako and Masanobu went to Sapporo.

  Ayako and Masanobu went to Shimizu's condominium in Sapporo, but I stayed at home, because I felt weary. I am not recovered from cold yet.

Masanobu has come.

  To help our sister Emiko, Ayako's older sister, and her husband, Ayako's younger brother, Masanobu, has been doing very much. We are very thankful to him. He has come all the way from Tochigi. It is the second time since last month. He has made a legal arrangement for Ayako to act as a guardian for her sister Emiko and her husband. Tomorrow, we are going to Sapporo to make every arrangement.

A rainy windy day today.

 I stayed at home all day, because the weather was very bad. It was very windy, and rained heavily. Ayako worked on sorting Shimizu's papers and clothes which we carried here yesterday. I spent time doing crossword puzzles and watching a high school baseball game of Meiji Jingu Cup Tournament between Otaru Hokusho and Okinawa Shogaku. Otaru won by 2-1 by ace pitcher Okushi' game ending homerun. Otaru will advance to the semi-final tomorrow against Sendai Ikuei.

Ayako,Haruna and I worked in the Shimizus' condominium allday today.

  Ayako and I left home for Sapporo at 8:30 a.m. We were to clean up things in the rooms of Shimizus' condominium with Haruna. We arrived there at 9:45, and began to work. Haruna arrived half an hour later with Minori, her daughter, and joined us. A man came from a second hand book store to buy some books from Shimizu's book shelves. He carried some 50 books for only 1,000 yen. Then another man came from a recycle shop, and evaluate some things. We returned home at 4:30.

An ice hockey game - a preliminary for next year's Sochi Olympics

   I watched an ice hockey game on TV for the first time in years. The game ended in Japan's victory over Korea by 4-3 in the extra time. It was the preliminary for the Sochi Olympics in 2014. To advance to the final preliminary tournament, Japan will have to win another game against the UK team tomorrow.

I feel better today.

  I feel better today. Maybe, I have recovered from cold. The weather was cloudy. It was a busy day for Ayako. In the morning, she went to Shirakaba-Sakuragi community hall to attend a fancy work class sponsored by the neighorhood association, and in the afternoon, she went to have a finger pressure therapy and in the evening, she went to her weekly ceramic art class. I stayed at home all day. I went out once to buy lunch to the supermarket in Nisshin cho. 

Do I have a cold?

 It was fine in the morning, so Ayako and I were going to Sapporo to clear up Shimizus's room in their condominium. But Ayako said she had high blood pressure and I had a runny nose and felt a chill. I might have caught a cold. We gave up going to go to Sapporo and stayed home all day.

Barac Obama was reelected as the president of USA.

  The presidential election was held today, and Barack Obama was reelected.

A very windy day with occasional rain.

In the morning, I stood at the crossing as a school guard as on every Tuesday. It was not raining at the time, but very windy. The sky was very dark and it was threatening to rain at any moment. After that, I was staying all day. It began to rain in the afternoon, and the weather was becoming worse and worse toward evening. The low atomospheric pressure approaching Japan brought violent wind and snowfall in China, and because of the snowstorm, three Japanese tourists were killed and two were injured hiking along the Great Wall of China.  

I seem to have recovered from dullness.

 I didn't feel dull this morning, so I seem to have recovered from dullness. In the morning, I went out shopping with Ayako. Ayako carried her collection of postage stamps and sold them at a shop for some 7,000 yen.

Because of the protective vaccination of influenza (?), I feel tired.

  I feel tired today, too. I wonder why I feel so tired. I had a preventive shot against influenza on Thursday. I think it must be a side-effect of the injection. Anyway, I have been feeling dull since last Thursday.

In Japan series, Fighters was defeated, and ended the season.

Today was a national holiday, "Culture Day".  Scholars and persons of culture who had contributed to the progress of culture and civilization were awarded to the Order of culture. Among them, Dr.Nakayama, a Nobel prize winner of this year was included.  

I walked in the morning along the Tomakomai river. I felt tired as I had felt yesterday. In the evening, I watched Japan series game between Fighters and Giants. Nakata of Fighters hit a 3run homerun and tied the game but finally, Ishii, Fighters' relief pitcher allowed Abe of Giants to hit a timely hit, and as a result, Fighters was defeated by 4-3. Giants won Japan's championships for 2012.

Ayako returned home from Sapporo in the afternoon

  Ayako stayed at Chiaki's home in Sapporo overnight and returned home at about 1:00 o'clock. She took care of our grandchildren and did their washing.
  I stayed at home in the morning, and in the afternoon, went out for a walk as usual.

Ayako has gone to Chiaki's house to take care of our grand sons.

  In the morning, Ayako went to Sapporo to take care of Arashi and Tokio, our grand sons, because their mother, Chiaki, would come home late this evening. Chiaki has been divorced for a few months and now works as a dietician for some care houses. So, we are concerning about her and her two son's future lives. 
  Today was the regular checkup day of my diabetes. At 10:30, I walked to the hospital, which took about 25 minutes. The result of the checkup was very good, so the doctor decided to decrease the medicine to a quarter of a pill a day. The data of today's checkup was :  sugar level 4 hours after breakfast was 89, HbA1c was 6.2 ( international standard:6.6).
  In the evening, I watched Japan series game on TV. Fighters lost the game 2-10. Yoshikawa was knocked out again by Bowker' homerun. It was a great pity.

Hokaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat Giants in the extra inning and tied 2-2 yesterday.

  Ayako and I were tired from the previous day's work in Sapporo. But in the afternoon, I went out for walking along the Tomakomai river. I walked about 10,000 steps according to the medometer enbedded in my cellphone.
  In yesterday evening, I watched the Japan series game on TV. The game was very close one and both teams young starters, Nakamura of Fighters, and Miyakuni of Giants, pitched very well and they didn't allow any score at all.　The game went into extra innings and, finally, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Fighters earned one run by Iiyama's timely hit and the game ended in Fighters' victory. The game count is now 2-2 tie. Another game, the fifth game will be played this evening in Sapporo Dome.